Category Archives: Self-Care

Working in the special needs profession often leaves little room for self-care and developing a healthy lifestyle including exercising, which why it is vital that you take the initiative and create an exercise plan that will work well for you.

Why Exercise?

Exercise is essential for your health and well-being for many reasons. For one, it helps to prevent disease. By moving one’s body daily, we reduce the risk of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. A second reason is that it helps us control our weight. As we get older, we tend to slow down which causes us to burn fewer calories. Working in a profession which can take an emotional and mental toll, causes one to just want to go home and relax. However, exercising less and burning fewer calories can lead to obesity.

Benefits of Exercising

There are many benefits to exercising

Improves memory and thinking skills. Research shows that working out on a regular basis boost the size of the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory and learning. This is done through aerobic exercises.

Relieves stress. Although not fully understood, regular exercise reduces anxiety and depression disorders. It is known however that aerobic exercise is associated with the lower sympathetic nervous system which is responsible for accelerating the heart rate and raising the blood pressure.

Boost energy. While little is known on the relationship between exercise and energy, studies show that people who exercise on a regular basis, are more likely to feel more energy than those who do not.

Four Types of Exercises

Endurance. includes aerobic activities which focus on your circulatory system and helps to build your endurance. exercises include walking, jumping, and running.

Strength. Also known as resistance training, serves the purpose of strengthening and toning your muscles. Exercises typically include weight lifting.

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Meditation is said to have been around for over 5,000 years. Meditation serves the purpose of caring for the mind, body and spirit. It is the experience of relaxing the body, quieting the mind and awakening the spirit.

The Quieter You Become, The More You Can Hear

The following are great video’s on meditation by the Honest Guys. This site includes video’s that are guided. If you prefer meditation in silence, they also have great video’s with different types of background sounds:

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Week 4 Challenge – Gratitude

In life, especially when facing challenges in life, it is so easy to focus on the negative aspect of life. I do believe that we are all living magnets that what we think, we become. Leading to the thoughts that become our reality. When we express gratitude, we are acknowledging all the good that has come into our lives. It also prevents us from worrying about a future that may not happen by being in the moment, we have a chance to appreciate all that is good which in turn will attract more positive thing in our lives.

Benefits of expressing gratitude:

Helps to put problems into perspective

It reduces stress levels

It makes us happier

It strengthens our emotions

It puts us in a place of now

It improves sleep patterns

Steps to practicing gratitude:

Pay attention to the little things in life that you appreciate

Write down the things you are grateful for daily in a journal

Start your day by being thankful for all the blessings in your life

Be thankful for all the lessons that you have received

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”- William Arthur Ward